1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of reinforced materials and methods for their manufacture, and is particularly concerned with an improvement in the process of making reinforced materials, the improvement specifically concerning the nature of the reinforcing material itself, and the incorporation of the reinforcing material into a body material which is to be reinforced. The physical appearance of the "mix" of particulates with a body material is used to determine the necessary characteristics of the particulates for a given reinforcing material. The proportion of particulated reinforcing material which may be incorporated into a body material is dependent upon the physical and chemical characteristics of the reinforcing material and the body material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The closest prior art known to the applicants is U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,813,048, 2,631,668 and 3,102,063. The first two patents are concerned with cutters, the first of which is similar to cutters used to produce the reinforcing material of the present invention, and the second of which is used to produce short uniform-length staple. Although U.S. Pat. No. 3,813,048 discloses the cutting of materials in substantially the same manner as in the present invention, it does not disclose the characteristics of the cut product nor the use to which that product is put in the process of the present invention. U.S. Pat. No. 3,102,063 is considered to be in an irrelevant field of art. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 3,102,063 discloses a particle size dependence of a papermaking sheet production process. However, the particle type, origin and function and the size range used in U.S. Pat. No. 3,102,063 are considered to be wholly different from the characteristics of the particles used in the process of the present invention. The particles referred to in U.S. Pat. No. 3,102,063 are employed as "body" components while the particulates of concern in the process of the present invention are employed as "reinforcing" components.